Hello, I’m new from the US! Have a huge story and some questions.

[Kei]

Hey there! New member, joining from the US.

Some backstory about how I ended up here:
When I was younger, I was all about Japanese cars. I still am, but nonetheless- I was autocrossing my little speed3 and working on a single turbo rx7 project. Down a road I used to drive on often I’d see this weird little coupe/hatchback thing alongside this beautiful stone house, it was absolutely something I’d never seen before. I eventually knocked, and the owner was super friendly and educated me. It was his Audi 90 coupe, with a super cool bag of snakes exhaust manifold. 7A, n/a. All we got here in the US. A drunk driver hit it, caving in the rear right, and he parked it. I adored the interior and it’s all business look. These cars are rare here, and even rarer actually on the road. Over the next few years I kept it in mind, researching every now and then. Two years back an S2 clone popped up for sale, about finished, and in need of bodywork but had an immense load of spare bits. I frantically tried to fire sale my 97’ M3 and in the end the guy sold it out from under me.

Last year I got the opportunity to trade an E55 AMG for a pretty nice silver on grey interior urS6 sedan. It came from a good home, and was originally owned and MTM tuned by
Gianluigi Longinotti-Buitoni. Kinda neat. I bet the in car handset held some pretty crazy conversations. I drove it about 700 miles home with ice cold A/C that was stuck on for most of the drive. I love it, the sound, dash, interior, feel. What an absolutely cool car. I’ve driven fast rear wheel and front wheel, but I haven’t driven something that delivers power through corners like this and it was exciting!

About two weeks into having it on my turf, driving it and getting a feel for it, it started knocking. I ripped it apart that weekend, and found:

-Oil was clean and was at the proper level
-Cyl 2 and 3 bearings were spun, 1-4-5 were on their way.
-Main bearings were perfect
-Cyl 3 piston had contacted the head, the top ring is still free so it might not have been that hard. No valve contact. While that happened, some carbon broke loose and gouged the cylinder. Not crazy but your mail will catch it.
-The exhaust manifold is cracked. Very weird, I absolutely didn’t hear a thing.
-Hard to reach oil pan bolts were loose
-The engine and engine bay was dry, but at some point it looks to have had a pretty substantial oil leak.

The second owner of the car was a collector, and had many of these. This was apparently his nice one, I acquired it from a family friend after he passed away. I suspect that at some point it had an oil leak gone fatal, had a quick bearing job done, sat garaged for some time then ended up with me.

I guess my question is, what would you do? It’s time I get this thing out back together, my friends call the right side of my shop the Audi side. I don’t have a surplus of parts for this car and it’s all very new to me. I was supplied with an equal length stainless manifold of unknown origin, a Volvo hybrid turbo with a matching EFI tuned ecu, injectors, fuel pump and relay kit, an s4 intercooler, a ton of silicone couplers, and a coil conversion kit I had been running. Because of the bearings a set of H-beam rods are planned, and because the need of block machine work I’ll be in the market for a set of pistons. I’m looking for a realistic 360-400hp, which I believe should be reliably obtainable. I’d love to have some recommendations shared, some companies to check out, anything. The ur/quattro/AAN family knowledge around me is limited.

Thanks for reading my lengthy post. I appreciate your time and suggestions, if you decide to leave any!

[Rikki Kitto]

Pictures, we like pictures

[LSG]

Hello and a warm from over the pond..

[Kei]

Pictures, we like pictures

I tried! I don’t know what image host to use. How do you guys usually upload pics?

[Kei]

Hello and a warm from over the pond..

Thank you! Happy to be here

[Tractor Dave]

Tapatalk is the easy way to post pics

[ottawa coupe]

A stock bottom end can handle that power (but that's what i understand is the reliable limit). Perhaps it'll be better $ wise to find another aan bottom end. Difficult i know but not impossible. Machining and pistons/rods add up really fast.

Verify what is in that ecu.

The manifold is probably a chinese ebay special. I hear they are actually not terrible but i also hear you'd be wise to add some support bracing.

[Kei]

Tapatalk is the easy way to post pics

Awesome, thanks


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[Kei]

Here's some photos!

[Kei]

A stock bottom end can handle that power (but that's what i understand is the reliable limit). Perhaps it'll be better $ wise to find another aan bottom end. Difficult i know but not impossible. Machining and pistons/rods add up really fast.

Verify what is in that ecu.

The manifold is probably a chinese ebay special. I hear they are actually not terrible but i also hear you'd be wise to add some support bracing.

I thought of possibly finding another bottom end, but I do have a machinist I really like that I take all my old cosworth Volvo stuff to. I'd also rather spend money on the internals for the safety net, so I don't mind the cost. I usually run Weiseco pistons in my engines. I see Scat makes a set of rods for these? Are they actually any good?

I've wondered if I could send the ecu back to Mark at EFI. I fear the cost of getting the Motronic re-flashed, if needed, would push me in the direction of a stand-alone though.


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[K Simmonds]

Welcome to the forum...

I'd avoid using the tubular exhaust manifold as it drastically relocates the the turbo along with the wategate so the downpipe has to be modified and forget ever using the airbox again, though I quite like your current cold air intake set up which again would have to be modified. The stock cast manifolds are very prone to cracking but often don't leak and can be welded back up, a much better option is an RS2 manifold if you can find one or a Waner Evo version of it is about the best thing going if you can still get one.

That turbo is a Volvo K24 7400 with a #6 KKK 50mm exit turbine housing either machined out of a #6 K24 housing or from a Porsche 944, I use to build them when the parts were cheap and easy to find. They're a great option for the mid 300's BHP wise, with 370bhp being their limit on these engine's with very quick spool and buckets of torque. The ECU etc from Mark should be a nice safe set up, probably around 350bhp and 450nm which compared to stock is savage, to be honest much more than that isn't really pleasant to drive on the road. I've had this conversation with many S2/RS2 and Ford Cosworth owners and everyone seems to agree the sweet spot for a road car is between 300 and 400 bhp and 450 to 550nm of torque.

The stock pistons are forged are good for well over 500bhp so really no need to change them unless your bore's are damaged. Scat rods are fine, though get you're engine builder to ballance them. The rod's are the only weak point on a stock engine, however it's not power that kills them it's sudden torque delivery at low rpm, it's quite feasiable to have a K26/7 or even a straght K27 set up to run 450bhp on stock rods as long as the engine doesn't see full boost until 4000rpm.

I've driven an MRC mapped car with a K27 which was gutless until 4500rpm when all hell broke loose and that had a stock bottom end and as far as know is still going strong, not very easy to drive though! A well mapped K24 7400 is a great set up or the best option IMO is an RS2 K24 7200 turbo (it's really a K26) but they're expensive and hard to find now and you won't gain very much over the K24 7400, they're very close in performance. An RS2 turbo tops out at 380 and 500nm so not a whole lot more than what you already have ready. Also there's a chap on here called Vidar who's an absoute wizard with turbo's, he's got a K24 7000 avaiable that looks totaly stock on the outside once fitted but give's RS2 turbo performance.

Just reread your first post again, if the damage to the bore won't hone out then you'll have no choice but to go to the first oversize and cutom pistons, Weiseco pistons are a pretty solid choice.

Though to give you a straight answer personally I'd in your situation I'd go with that Volvo hybrid and the stuff from Mark at EFI Express, just confirm the software is for that set up.

[ottawa coupe]

For the power you're lookin at, stick with the stock ecu with a tune from marc. I was silly and went VEMS on mine. Lasted 10,000kns and crapped itself last summer and i can't communicate with it now.

Send marc the ecu, verify what is in there, get the tune for your volvo turbo if needed and you'll have a reliable high 300hp car.

I am going this route this summer, just with the tte 420 turbo he sells. Saving my pennies and now trying to decide between installing it myself or saying effit and taking 3 days to go down to NH and getting them to install and verify all is well.

[Kei]

Welcome to the forum...

I'd avoid using the tubular exhaust manifold as it drastically relocates the the turbo along with the wategate so the downpipe has to be modified and forget ever using the airbox again, though I quite like your current cold air intake set up which again would have to be modified. The stock cast manifolds are very prone to cracking but often don't leak and can be welded back up, a much better option is an RS2 manifold if you can find one or a Waner Evo version of it is about the best thing going if you can still get one.

That turbo is a Volvo K24 7400 with a #6 KKK 50mm exit turbine housing either machined out of a #6 K24 housing or from a Porsche 944, I use to build them when the parts were cheap and easy to find. They're a great option for the mid 300's BHP wise, with 370bhp being their limit on these engine's with very quick spool and buckets of torque. The ECU etc from Mark should be a nice safe set up, probably around 350bhp and 450nm which compared to stock is savage, to be honest much more than that isn't really pleasant to drive on the road. I've had this conversation with many S2/RS2 and Ford Cosworth owners and everyone seems to agree the sweet spot for a road car is between 300 and 400 bhp and 450 to 550nm of torque.

The stock pistons are forged are good for well over 500bhp so really no need to change them unless your bore's are damaged. Scat rods are fine, though get you're engine builder to ballance them. The rod's are the only weak point on a stock engine, however it's not power that kills them it's sudden torque delivery at low rpm, it's quite feasiable to have a K26/7 or even a straght K27 set up to run 450bhp on stock rods as long as the engine doesn't see full boost until 4000rpm.

I've driven an MRC mapped car with a K27 which was gutless until 4500rpm when all hell broke loose and that had a stock bottom end and as far as know is still going strong, not very easy to drive though! A well mapped K24 7400 is a great set up or the best option IMO is an RS2 K24 7200 turbo (it's really a K26) but they're expensive and hard to find now and you won't gain very much over the K24 7400, they're very close in performance. An RS2 turbo tops out at 380 and 500nm so not a whole lot more than what you already have ready. Also there's a chap on here called Vidar who's an absoute wizard with turbo's, he's got a K24 7000 avaiable that looks totaly stock on the outside once fitted but give's RS2 turbo performance.

Just reread your first post again, if the damage to the bore won't hone out then you'll have no choice but to go to the first oversize and cutom pistons, Weiseco pistons are a pretty solid choice.

Though to give you a straight answer personally I'd in your situation I'd go with that Volvo hybrid and the stuff from Mark at EFI Express, just confirm the software is for that set up.

Thank you so much for the advice. I really appreciate all of you!

[vonbeck]

Welcome matey